Paul Sinclair, who lives on adjoining Chatsworth Gardens, believes emergency services were called as early as 8am.

He said: “There was nothing to it at first, there were two or three police cars and an officer didn’t think it was going to last long.

“We’ve virtually been prisoners on our own street. What’s the cost of all these resources being called out?

“This is a lovely area filled with lovely people, we all know each other and then this all happens because of a couple of youths.”

Neighbour Karen Black added: “It’s usually a quite street but it’s turned into something off of Shameless.”

Roofs of houses were stripped by youths who launched tiles and debris at officers.

(Image: Newcastle Chronicle)

Missiles bounced off the shields of riot police as they advanced and one cracked the windscreen of a nearby parked Range Rover.

Chelsea fan Joseph Campbell, of Chatsworth Gardens, turned the TV around in his front room to split his time between the stand-off and the match.

He said: “I’ve felt completely safe throughout the whole incident, emergency services are all doing their jobs well.”

Eyewitnesses say two youths on the roofs were joined by a third and armed police arrived at around 2pm.

Police were able to bring the last remaining youth down off the roof by 5.40pm.

He had moved to the top of a house on Matlock Gardens and climbed down to a garage roof before officers convinced him to come down.

Residents and neighbours cheered and clapped as the incident came to an end.

One woman, who lives nearby, said: “Thank God for that. I’m glad it’s all over. This has been a long day, I still can’t believe what has happened here.”

After the incident finished, the police Central Area Command put a statement on their Facebook page saying: “Thanks to everyone in the community for their patience on this one. The three men have now been brought to safety and subsequently arrested.

“Stark warning to others who think this is good use of police time - it’s not! It is dangerous, wholly unacceptable and we will take action.”

Speaking on their involvement, a spokesperson for the North East Ambulance Service said: “We were called to the Westerhope area at 10.20am this morning.

“We have dispatched our Hazardous Area Response Team and two double-crewed ambulances and we have taken two patients to hospital.”